Mini-Apple tops Chicago, LA, and Philadelphia as a great place to work

The majority of UST’s prospective and current students are originally from Minnesota, and the information in this post will come as no surprise to them: Minnesota, specifically the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are great places to live and work.

In a recent article, The Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal summarized the results of a national study that focused on ranking U.S. Cities according to their attractiveness to young professionals; the Twin Cities finished 18th out of the 67 cities, beating out a few cities that may come as a surprise to you– Chicago, LA, and Philadelphia were among those ranking below the Mini-Apple.

The study focused on a number of factors, including employment growth, the share of the population between 18 and 34, and share of householders under the age of 45 who have household incomes of $100,000 or more.

Since we are a business school, let’s first take look at why the Twin Cities are great places to work. Several dynamic companies call the Twin Cities home, including Target Corporation, Best Buy, Medtronic, United Healthcare, and General Mills. We certainly have students from these companies, and many more great Minnesota companies, in our program – take a look at this list for a snapshot of where our students are working.

Finding and keeping a job, even during very volatile economic conditions, is something we pride ourselves on in Minnesota. During a time when national unemployment rates are flirting with 10%, Minnesota has remained relatively stable at 7.3%. In fact, the United States Department of Labor published a list in January containing the unemployment rates of the major U.S. Metropolitan Areas; of the 372 areas on the list, Minneapolis-St. Paul was in the top 15% of the list – any true Minnesotan would surely respond that’s “not too bad.”

The Twin Cities and Minnesota have been recognized in several places as great places to live, work, and play. Check out this list to see what I mean. From our lakes, to arts, theatre and culture there’s plenty to do. And, really winter isn’t too bad – at least we get to experience all 4 seasons! In fact, check out our Twitter feed for our upcoming “Signs of Spring” contest. In the meantime, I’m off to enjoy the weather.